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Like every other fan of Australian political theatre, I’ve been following the Ozcar affair. But I really object to it being called Utegate. We’re Australians. We don’t have -gates. That’s an American shorthand for a political scandal. We have our own term for these things, or at least, we should.
So I propose that we innaugrate a new, Australian cliche: The Overboard.
Continue reading “In reply to #utegate – Making Political Scandals Australian”
Something new for the Daft Lyrics Database: a newly written filk piece, to the tune of Monty Python’s Lumberjack Song:
(Presented with apologies to people named Jones, people named Tomlinson and some people named Palin.)
I don’t doubt that you’ve all encountered what I think of as ‘Cultured Spaces.’ These are spaces that are set aside exclusively for the use of one particular group to the exclusion of all others. You often find them at universities – rooms for women, for queer and transgendered people, for members of particular religions. Often they are not rooms that serve any particular function beyond privacy (although rooms for religious groups often blur this distinction).
I’ve often found myself in two minds about this. I hate that these things are exclusionary, but then, I’m also aware that, as a wise friend of mine once put it: “maybe someone needs a space I’m not in. ” What to do, what to do…
It’s a great thing that our Prime Minister has officially said Sorry. It truly is. I am wholly in support of him in this matter.
It’s just…
…is it enough?
And by this, I don’t mean, is there more to be done, but rather, is there more apologising to be done?
Welcome back to part two, in which I’ll be talking about lie detection and lie telling, and, just incidentally, reaching a few conclusions.
Continue reading “The Sacred Art of Telling It Like It Isn’t (part two)”
Everybody lies.
Oh, you can claim otherwise, but you will, of course, be lying if you do so.
C’mon, we all know that everyone else lies – is it truly that big a leap to admit that you do too? Oh no. You lie, and you know you lie. I won’t humiliate you by trying to trap you into admitting it. Just admit it to yourself, and we can move on, okay?
This essay (or series of essays, depending on how wordy I wax), is intended to be a comprehensive look at the hows of lying, including an analysis of the various ways of lying and the pros and cons of each, and some thoughts about how and why lies are detected.
What it will not be, at least until the very end of this, is any sort of moral judgement. I don’t care why you lie. Your motives, rationales, justifications and ass-covering do not interest me – any more, I imagine, than mine would interest you.
No, I just want to talk about lying.
I want to talk about it as frankly, as honestly and as non-judgmentally as possible. This may prove discomforting for some of you to read, if you are unaccustomed to considering this matter dispassionately. If so, just navigate away now. It’s a blog. No one can tell if you’ve read it or not.
Unless, of course, they catch you in a lie about it…
Let’s move on. Continue reading “The Sacred Art of Telling It Like It Isn’t”